Things I love about my new house

Sometimes the joy you feel about something diminishes over time. An ideal way to remember that joy is to write it down. I did that when I first had ferrets. I remember the joy well. Otherwise, your memory fades and you lose the gratitude.

So in the spirit of capturing the joy, after 16 days in my new house, I write, in no particular order, what I love about my new place:
1. The double entry - Getting into my house requires going through not 1, but 2 doors. Each of them is a proper door. I love the fact that the outer door is almost on the street, but because I have the inner door as well, I don't hear the noise from the street (if there was any) and I also feel more secure. Not that I feel unsafe; I don't.
2. The safety. It's lovely knowing that the other half of the house has a family in it. It's also lovely that I never hear them, and virtually never see them. Proximity, but not too much.
3. The peace and quiet. Not that my old house was that busy, but the street here, because there's only a few houses beyond mine, is very very quiet (think cartoons).
4. The ferret palace (aka the bathroom). Even if I'm out all day, the ferrets have a very large cage/bathroom to run around in. Plus hopefully it'll get less stinky because it doesn't have much to absorb ferrety odour (eu de ferret) and I can just wipe down the walls and floors easily.
5. My own washing machine and dryer. No more angry flatmate when I leave something in the dryer accidentally. Inversely, no more left over tiny amounts of washing that clearly did not need to be put in the dryer. Win win win.
6. My bathroom - it has a big shower, it has no mirror, it has a slightly separate toilet, but not really. I like all these things.
7. My kitchen - the kitchen has enough kitchen cabinets that it's not too crowded. Please don't give me stuff! It's perfect now. Not cluttered. After 11.5 years living with clutter, after 18 years of living in a small amount of space which necessitated some clutter, after 36 years of living with people with lots of stuff, now my house fits my stuff and me perfectly. Not empty. Not cluttered. YAY!!
8. My stuff - for the first time in my life, I have laundry stuff not in my room, but in the laundry (e.g. dirty clothes). I have kitchen stuff not in my room but in the kitchen. I have a proper area for guests that I'm not ashamed of, or need to clean up before people get here. Anyone could walk in right now and I would welcome them knowing my house is clean and organised. I mean - anyone! The Queen. The Prime Minister. My mother. My Dad. Important people like that.
9. The new stuff. The wonderful Karen gave me a completely new cutlery set. Not someone else's left over cutlery (though that was gratefully accepted at the time) but new! And I get to use all the gifts I've been given in the last 6 years that I didn't have any room for. Like my saucepans, and my crockery, and my glasses, and my ... my stuff.
10. My kitchen - a functional yet pleasant room with a dining table where I sit and have breakfast. Which is not covered in someone else's left over groceries/laundry/etc.
11. My bedroom/living room. Multiple places to hang out. My books all out on the shelves and easily accessible. My new tallboy (2nd hand, from Ebay, but lovely and new to me). My non-ferreted wardrobe. My chimney place, with my TV set up on my entertainment table that for the last 5 years has been my bedside table. My weird cupboard. My huge amount of space in the middle of the room. There is enough room to play 2 games of Twister simulatneously!
12. Getting up in the morning. I used to wake up and hope that my flatmate had left. And if it sounded like she was going to leave, I would lie in bed until she left so I didn't have to talk to her. Now I just bound out of bed every morning. It's the best!!
13. My ornaments out on display. I've never had anywhere to put my ornaments. Odd things that I've been given over the years and had nowhere to put. I love it that everyone wants to look at my fridge and then loves what's inside it (my *toy* fridge).
14. The peace and quiet. No having to talk to someone I never really liked anymore. Just me and the fuzzbutts.
15. The new environment - it's exciting getting to know your new neighbourhood. So far I've checked out a local church (good), local pool (good enough), local shopping centre. But I don't know much else... ;)
16. Getting home. I love when I get home - when I've been peopled out, when I'm spending all day with people (like yesterday and the day before with my extremely challenging family) that I get home and there is peace and quiet. The washing up is done. There is no stuff all over the floor. The rooms looks like when I left. How nice!